Oregon’s graduation rate rose to 74 percent in 2015, but 47 other states did better. Photo: Casey Parks/Oregonian
Six years ago, Oregon legislators set an ambitious goal for the state’s schools: By 2025, all students would graduate from high school, 40 percent would earn a bachelor’s degree and 40 percent would earn a two-year degree.

Now lawmakers are preparing to drop the education goals, “largely at the urging of the state’s teachers union,” reports Oregon Live.

“It is not realistic,” Rep. Paul Evans, D-Salem, a community college instructor and the primary sponsor of the bill to end…

Every time we talk about “digital natives” and “Kids’ innate skills with technology”, we reinforce the idea that you’ve either got it or you don’t, that if you are over thirty then you can’t be good with tech, that if you’re under thirty you don’t need any training because you’re simply imbued with an understanding of all silicon-based circuitry.

Fatuous self-indulgent hokum.

Let me state it for the record: There is no such thing as “Innate Skill” with technology. Kids have had more practice at playing games and chatting via FB, text, or IM, but nothing else. They are, on average,…

We are now entering a time period in which we might start to see a lot of studies released about the impact of new teacher evaluations. This incredibly rapid policy shift, perhaps the centerpiece of the Obama Administration’s education efforts, was sold based on illustrations of the importance of teacher quality.

The basic argument was that teacher effectiveness is perhaps the most important factor under schools’ control, and the best way to improve that effectiveness was to identify and remove ineffective teachers via new teacher evaluations. Without question, there was a logic to this…

The “loyalty oaths” of the ’50s have returned to academia, writes George Leef. Now professors and would-be professors must pledge “adherence to the ‘diversity’ agenda” to get a job or have a shot at tenure.

The University of California’s anti-communist loyalty oath for professors was struck down by the California Supreme Court in 1952.

University of Oregon, Oregon Health & Science University, Oregon State University, and Portland State University are requiring diversity statements for hiring or promotion, reports the Oregon Association of Scholars.